Office equipment makers that manufacture copiers, facsimile apparatuses, printers, and the like are actively engaged in recycling activities in which used products or component units are collected from users and then disassembled, cleaned, and assembled again for recycling use as components or as raw materials in order to bring about a resource-recycling society. In order to recycle components used in these products or component units, there is a need for a process that removes fine toner particles attached to these units and components for the cleaning purpose. The important issue is to reduce the cost and environmental load associated with such cleaning.
In the case of a wet-type cleaning method that uses water or solvent, the consumption of energy and environmental load associated with the processing and disposal of waste fluid including toner and the need of a drying process after cleaning are significant, and require high costs.
In the case of a dry-type cleaning method by use of air blow, the cleaning power is not sufficient when toner has strong adhesion, and, also, subsequent process steps are necessary such as manual wiping. Because of this, cleaning is recognized as one of the bottleneck process steps that exist in the recycle and reuse of products.
In order to obviate this problem, the applicant of this invention has developed a cleaning method that utilizes a dry-type cleaning agent (see Patent Document 1). In this method, developer (carrier) used in electrophotographic processes is used as cleaning agent, and toner particles adhering to the object to be cleaned are removed by attaching the particles to the cleaning agent, thereby achieving dry cleaning. The performance of this method is not yet sufficient with respect to the objects to be cleaned for which high cleaning quality (high degree of cleanliness) is required.
Namely, in the case of a cleaning agent utilizing electrostatic absorption, as the cleaning agent becomes dirty (due to the attachment of toner), the power of toner absorption may decrease, and, also, toner may become more likely to be removed from the cleaning agent to be attached again to the object to be cleaned. There is a need to improve the degree of cleanliness of the cleaning agent in order to improve the cleaning quality. The centrifuge separation effect of circling air current (cyclone method) is not sufficient for this purpose in terms of separation power. Further, in order to improve cleaning quality, there is a need to replace the cleaning agent again and again after the cleaning agent absorbs toner, resulting in cleaning inefficiency and the need for a large amount of cleaning agent.
Patent Document 2, for example, discloses an apparatus that uses a discharging device and spherical contact member made of elastic material such as soft urethane formed material to remove dust attached to chargeable objects. In Patent Document 2, the contact member is repeatedly used to remove dust. Because of the repeated use of the contact member, there is the concern of the dropping of cleaning quality as the dust is attached to and accumulated on the contact member.
Further, since a large number of components to be cleaned are simultaneously accommodated in a case for stirring, these components to be cleaned may be scratched or damaged due to collision and contact with each other if the components to be cleaned are easily scratched or heavy and bulky.
Patent Document 3, for example, discloses a barreling apparatus that runs air through a plurality of barreling tanks to eject grinding particles. In Patent Document 3, the surface disposed to oppose the inlet of external air is provided with a dust ejecting unit of a net plate shape, and the suction power of a dust collector is used to eject dust thereby to prevent the grinded object to be covered with dirt. If the suction power of the dust collector is increased in order to improve separation between the grinding particles and the dry media, the dry media may clog the dust ejecting unit of net plate shape. It thus appears difficult to achieve sufficient separation performance.
Since the grinded objects and the dry media are put in the barrel pot for stirring, as in Patent Document 2, there is the concern of scratching and damaging depending on the nature of the grinded objects.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-122123
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent No. 3288462
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent No. 2643103
Accordingly, there is a need for a scheme that improves cleaning quality and cleaning efficiency by improving the motion speed and degree of cleanliness of dry cleaning agent.
There is a further need for a dry cleaning apparatus that does not damage components and does not leave unclean parts even if components of complex shapes are to be cleaned.